A selfie from inside the Marsh Lock, the first of three locks we rowed through
Today we had the unique experience of seeing the British countryside from the River Thames, rowing from Henley to Reading, in preparation for the Reading Town Regatta tomorrow afternoon. This was an amazing experience, as we were able to see some grand estates, beautiful scenery, and a pretty solid row all at the same time. To get to Henley from Reading, we had to go through three locks, which were narrower than our boat with our oars extended. I brought my phone along to get some video of our trip:
There were a few times I should have taken some video and pictures while stern pair rowed, but we were really having a solid row, so I didn’t want to interrupt that! The whole trip took us 2.25 hours or so, which included a lot of waiting to enter and exit the locks. Throughout the row, we saw a number of these Canal boats or Narrowboats. I’ve never seen anything like them before, but they’re very common on the Thames. We struck up a great conversation with a couple people in their canal boats while sitting in the third of three locks.
While we were rowing to Reading, the qualifying races were taking place at Henley. We were fortunate enough to not have to qualify, so it’s on to Wednesday for us!
Once we got back to Henley, we ate lunch, rested for a bit, then walked into town for dinner. We stopped in at The Three Tuns for a pint of locally brewed Brakspear cask beer, which was originally brewed in Henley, though now is largely brewed in Oxfordshire. The beer was only 3.4% alcohol, which is quite low by US standards, but apparently normal around here. After that, we walked across the river from town to The Little Angel for dinner.
Tomorrow we race at the Reading Town Regatta, an 800m race about a 15-20 minute drive from Henley. We’re be racing two other boats, including a boat from Mendota Rowing Club that we briefly trained with on the Charles River. Details to come!
Riverside Boat Club races at the Henley Royal Regatta 